down with pants! up with skirts!

Since so many have asked, here is the story of the duckling: we arecurrently up at the lake for Mem. Day wknd. We come up here every yearand stay with a bunch of family. There are always plenty of ducks withducklings around and we often see small groups on their own and know toleave them alone. On Sat afternoon after being up here for several dayswe decided to use the firepit. This firepit is located at the end of aconcrete pier that leads to the water (there is also a concrete boatlaunch) next to a yard with three large dogs. After being out there forseveral hours, at one point an hr or so before sundown a tiny littleduckling ran out of the woodpile which is next to the firepit andstraight up to our friend, climbed on top of him and buried its littleduck head in his hands. The duckling was wet all over and shaking,extremely cold and/or frightened. At first we assumed it had come from anest we couldnt see, so we put it in a box to avoid more human smell, but searching all over found no nests in the area (we had like ninepeople looking thru the entire shoreline) Now we think it probably gotseperated or left behind the day before, and it hid in the woodpile fromthe dogs. Finally it was so scared and cold and hungry that it made arun for protection. Thanks to internet advice we fed it some bran cerealmushed up. I know this is not adequate feed, but the internet and a vetassured me it would be fine until we could get to a feed store for someduckling feed on the trek home (my next task is finding feed stores openon memorial day) It also drank a bunch of water before curling up tosleep in my shirt. At this point we can't be sure which duck is itsmother, and we can't even find any ducks with ducklings close to itsage. So we are keeping it warm and happy until we can return home andfind an avian rescue. We are in the middle of nowhere right now and myinternet access is pretty limited to output only with occasional inputfrom you guys when my phone can briefly force a connection to downloadmail. So thx for all the help guys. I will repay you in cute ducklingjpgs.